Disney+ launches on Nov. 19

Disney+ streaming will launch in Australia on November 19 at $8.99 per month or $89.99 per year -putting it below Netflix and Stan prices.

The service will launch in Australia & NZ a week after its US / Canadian / Netherlands launch (Nov 12). It is expected the service to be in most major markets within two years.

Customers will be able to subscribe directly or via in-app purchases and will be available on a slew of platforms including Apple, Google, Microsoft’s Xbox One, Sony via its Android TVs and the Playstation 4 and Roku.

Programming will include Disney-owned franchises Star Wars, including spin-off series The Mandalorian (on launch day), Marvel and Pixar titles, a Lady And The Tramp reboot, a new High School Musical series Diary of a Female President and “reimaging” feature films including Home Alone and Night At The Museum.

The app will feature dedicated sections for each of Disney’s major brands, support offline downloads, and stream select content in 4K HDR.

The announcement will directly impact Disney titles currently available with Stan and Foxtel, which both have expiring contracts. There had been reports of talks between Nine-owned Stan with Disney, but it isn’t clear if a bundled Stan / Disney+ offer may yet be announced. Foxtel is also rumoured to be interested in having Disney+ integrated through its iQ revamp, which recently added Netflix.

Two weeks ago, Disney announced a Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle for $US12.99 ($19.14) for US subscribers, but will not be available in Australia due to complex rights tied up elsewhere.

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22 Comments:

If this has some shows that aren’t on other streaming services or haven’t been on TV much like The Simpsons, Futurama, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Drew Cary Show, Married with Children then I’ll be signing up on day one but I’m not really expecting much.

The global streaming business is certainly becoming like a corporate soap opera and once again Australia’s small subscriber base is having a role in adding to the complexity Australian consumers may confront in coming months deciding how to budget their viewing content, this state of affairs could benefit Foxtel or Stan in the short term especially while their selective broadcast rights last but eventually the big American global streamers will dominate if / when Foxtel decides to concentrate on broadcasting just sports much like Optus does. Unless Foxtel increase their budget and look at becoming global to match the competition their future may not be promising, even Mr. Murdoch has his limits so a merger of some sort must be on the cards.

I assume that we will get the full Disney + service,the same as everyone else around the world gets,and not the usual watered down version that we get when a major streaming service comes to Australia?

So really if you went for (all HD subs) Netflix, Stan, Disney, Amazon Prime, Curiosity Stream and Kayo you’d be looking at around $70 p/m which is a lot less than having Foxtel. So even missing out on some of the Showtime and HBO shows wouldn’t be a big deal as most you can buy most per season on iTunes, Google Play, or Fetch and still end up spending less than Foxtel.

Of course you could dip in and out of the streamers as you need, so it would end up even cheaper over a year (and some would just take Kayo for NRL/AFL Seasons). However still if you took them all you’re still ahead dollar wise even with the cost of the NBN as most have it regardless now apart from a few older people who just have NBN phone and not internet connected.

ESPN, NatGeo are on Foxtel and The Simpsons has sucked for 22 years. Warner Bros need to make a similar announcement for when their HBO Max streaming service will be available in Aus & US. If they don’t take the Friends show off of Stan and don’t make all their current and future HBO content also available on it (that people here have to currently get only from Foxtel), it’ll be seen as a joke here. People here who subscribe, would want to be able to get the new GoT prequel series from HBO Max in Aus, not from Foxtel.

The Simpsons may have ‘sucked’ for 22 years, but it’s one of the highest profitable franchises of all time

There are no legal streaming platforms for this show available in Australia, so hopefully Disney+ will give Australia access to it. Though I wonder if 7Mate’s licence give them first rights broadcast of new episodes before they get featured on Disney+.

I would attribute The Simpsons’ stagnation to the fact that it has had the same executive producer since Season 13 (being Al Jean, and incidentally season 13 was when I had noticed a sharp decline in the quality of the series), whereas prior seasons would have new executive producer(s) every season or two, which kept things fresh. Al Jean has been with The Simpsons from day-dot, but he should have been dumped as showrunner years ago.

Plus, several episodes in season 30 have rated under 2 million in the U.S., which is dire for a show like The Simpsons. Unless the cast are willing to take another paycut (that is, if they haven’t already done so without publicising the fact) I can’t see this being sustainable beyond the two season renewal.

With all the recent domestic and international media changes, I wonder if there’s a possibility Nine Ent Co. might be ‘pissed off’ (sorry for language) and walk away from their Disney deals altogether? Something here doesn’t suggest things have gone all too well in the negotiation stakes.

Woohoo!! I’m there day 1! Especially now that Disney have so expertly and cleverly woven in the biggest franchise in cinema history, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, into streaming TV shows for some of its most important characters to continue their stories. I have to sign up. Haha! Genius!

Without giving too much away, Disney pretty much did that with the finale of Legion as well I believe (now that they own FX as part of the Fox deal), and what a great finale that was so glad the season was able to be bought and watched on Fetch.

So yeah cannot wait to see what happens from here, especially once Disney wind up Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D on ABC next year, as I am sure that is all part of the big plan for the MCU as well.

Actually to answer myself it seems FX may still be getting used by Disney as today (US time):

“When asked about a possible continuation of Legion, Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb added, ‘As to the future, that world and those characters will always be there. It’s our hope that Noah Hawley will want to return to them in any capacity he thinks is worth telling. FX remains a huge priority for us because we can tell those unexpected stories there and John Landgraf (Chairman of FX Network and FX Productions) is something of a visionary himself. They ‘get’ us and we ‘get’ them. We like all of that.”

Plus there is a chance that Noah will do his Doctor Doom film even though Disney wiped the slate of all FOX Marvel productions when they merged, either way though if FX continues doing the more quirky style Marvel stories that’s good news for mine (and apparently there’s a new ABC one in…

Maybe Disney steaming isn’t your cup of tea, but I absolutely mean every word I said. I can’t wait to delve deeper into these characters I’ve been following for the best part of a decade on the big screen. And if that means it costs me $9 a month to give me far more depth into these stories and characters that films cannot possibly give me, then I’m all in.